Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1317 Year-End Review: The Li Family Made More Money

After the drip irrigation experimental field project was completed, the cooperative's cotton harvest was also coming to an end.

The cotton in the cooperative was harvested almost half a month later than in the drip irrigation experimental field. This was mainly because the cotton flowers bloomed at different times after replanting. In fact, after picking three batches of flowers, they also took back several hundred bags of peaches to peel.

Peaches that weren't opened and picked weren't worth money. Each family would take dozens of bags of peaches and, having nothing to do at home during the winter, would peel them for fun. The cotton that was peeled would be collected the following spring.

Of course, you can also use it at home. Go to a cotton shop to remove the seeds from these unopened cotton plants, and you can use them to wadding cotton clothes, make cotton shoes, etc.

The two cooperatives in the team are in the same situation. They don't use drip irrigation, so watering and fertilization are all done in a very rudimentary way. Li Long's cooperative is relatively better off because they have experience.

The two cooperatives were undertaking such a large-scale centralized planting for the first time, so they didn't have much experience. Although they would often consult Xie Yundong and the others, some techniques were time-sensitive, and they might have added their own ideas during the implementation process, thus compromising on the results.

Ultimately, the two cooperatives finished their work later than Li Long and his team.

After the hoeing and plowing were finished, the fields were already covered with frost in the mornings and evenings, and it was clear that it would snow soon.

It's the end of October.

At this time of year, the rural areas of northern Xinjiang present a desolate scene. The crops in the fields have all been harvested, the stalks have been knocked down and the land has been plowed, and the yellow, gray, or brown soil has been turned over.

Apart from the occasional stalks of wormwood or unpulled rapeseed growing on the ridges between plots, everything else was devoid of any vibrant color.

Occasionally, you can see a flock of sheep grazing on suitable grass in the middle of the field. Those guys hardly lift their heads, trying to eat as much as possible before the snow falls, otherwise it won't be so easy for them to find grass to eat after the snow comes down.

On November 5th, the cooperative settled accounts ahead of schedule and held an end-of-year summary meeting, which basically involved announcing expenditures and distributing dividends.

Xie Yundong's family also installed a telephone and called Li Long, asking him to come to their house on the morning of the 5th to discuss the year-end summary and profit distribution of the cooperative.

Last year, the cooperative had a surplus of 140,000 yuan. 40,000 yuan was used for expenses at the beginning of the year, and 100,000 yuan was distributed. Among them, Li Long and his elder brother Li Jianguo's families each received 40,000 yuan.

Their plots account for more than half of the total plots, but the yield of the wasteland was low in the first year, so they were allocated less.

This year is different. Last year, the yield from wasteland was 50 kilograms, which was equivalent to 25 yuan per mu (unit of land area), or 25 shares per mu. This year, it's 50 shares per mu.

Last year, the total number of shares was over 60,000, and this year it has become 86,000. Last year, the Li brothers held 39% of the shares, and this year it has become 42%.

It will increase next year, and after three years, it will be calculated directly based on cotton production. At that time, the two brothers will own more than half of the shares.

This was the agreement made from the very beginning. Although it was a bit unfair to the two Li brothers, Li Long didn't mind. He and his elder brother were both quite wealthy, leading a group of like-minded villagers to get rich together, so losing a little money was nothing.

The key to running a cooperative is unity of purpose. If people aren't united, it's really disgusting and the cooperative can easily fall apart.

Today is Monday, and Li Long is the only one who's free at home. He took Mingming and Haohao to elementary school, said goodbye to his father at the purchasing station, and then went to the fourth team.

Li Juan went to university and would occasionally call home. Her father, Li Qingxia, who used to drive Li Juan to and from school every week, now drives Li Qiang to and from school every week.

Li Qiang has now settled into high school life and made several good friends. According to Li Qingxia, when she picks him up, she often sees classmates saying goodbye to him.

When Li Long drove his Land Cruiser to Xie Yundong's house, he found that the others were already there.

This is quite unusual; only Xie's own car was parked in front of the Xie family's house, while Tao Daqiang and the others didn't drive theirs.

Li Long got out of the car and looked at the few people smoking in the yard, asking:
"Why didn't you drive this time? That's strange. Are you planning to exercise?"

His words caused the others to burst into laughter, and then they looked at Xu Haijun.

Xu Haijun, who was leaning against the wall smoking, looked a little embarrassed. When Li Long looked over, he said:

"The day before yesterday, I drove to the countryside to drink with my brother-in-law. On the way back, I felt a little dizzy and drove the car into a ditch..."

Li Long quickly looked him over and asked:
"Is it okay?"

"It's nothing. I wasn't going fast, and the ditch wasn't deep. The steering wheel just hit my ribs, and it still hurts."

"Has it been checked? Shouldn't we check for rib fractures?"

"It's nothing serious, it's not that bad." Xu Haijun hurriedly waved his hand, but the wave was probably a bit too big, so he couldn't help but gasp, and the cigarette butt in his mouth fell to the ground.

Xu Haijun looked down at the cigarette butt on the ground, which was only half-smoked, and felt a little sorry for it. However, he didn't pick it up in the end. He stomped it out with his foot and then said to Li Long, "It's okay. Anyway, there's nothing to do in winter. Let's have a good meal at Lao Xie's house today and then rest for a few days."

"What about your car? Is it alright?"

"It's nothing." Xu Haijun shook his head. "The front of the car was scratched by a tree stump in the ditch, but it's not a big problem."

Li Long nodded, now understanding why everyone wasn't driving.

"That's right. In the future, you shouldn't drink and drive. We're all in the same team. It's only a few steps, so you should be careful."

"Then why are you still driving?" Jia Weidong said with a smile. "After you finish drinking, how are you going to drive back? You should leave the car at your older brother's place and walk over."

"You think you can compare to me?" Li Long boasted. "I can drink two bottles of Baiyang Tequ and still drive straight..."

"Keep bragging. After we get our share of the profits, let's have a drink and see." Xu Haijun, already in a bad situation, naturally didn't want to see Li Long bragging. He started gathering his helpers. "Everyone heard that. Xiao Long is underestimating our drinking capacity. You all know what to do later, right?"

"Hey, it's just drinking, right?" Jia Weidong has a decent alcohol tolerance now, and he's very happy with his share of the profits today. He said in a very generous manner, "Shall we play a couple of rounds of drinking later?"

"Let's play a game then." Li Long had taken some time this year to learn the techniques of finger-guessing, as his older brother Li Jianguo was an expert in this area.

To put it simply, it's a competition of reaction speed, multitasking, and observation skills. Li Long himself is quite good at these aspects, so he's still somewhat confident.

"What are you all talking about? Why are you all making such a fuss? Aren't you cold outside?" Just then, Liang Dacheng walked in from outside the courtyard.

"You didn't drive either?" Li Long said with a smile, seeing that he had also walked over. "Hey, looks like you already knew. By the way, you were late last year, and you're late again this year."

"Well, something's come up at home," Liang Dacheng said with a smile. "My aunt introduced me to someone. She came to my house this morning to tell me about it, and I'm planning to meet her tomorrow."

"That's good, that's good," Li Long said. "You should have found someone a long time ago. Come on, let's go inside."

Li Jianguo isn't coming; he said yesterday that Li Long could collect it on his behalf. Besides, he has other things to do; he also needs to give money to Li Junhai and the others today.

This year, my elder brother Li Jianguo earned more money than last year—he acquired a high-horsepower tractor and took on plowing work for more than 10,000 mu of land in other brigades in the brigade and even other brigades in the township.

This doesn't even include the team's nearly four thousand acres of land—at least they left Wang Caimi almost a thousand acres of land to work on.

Just from plowing the land twice a year, they earned 270,000 to 280,000 yuan.

In addition to the planting, cutting, harrowing, and leveling processes, the company generated a gross income of five to six hundred thousand yuan that year.

Although the cost of a high-horsepower tractor is not low, the speed at which it makes money still surprised Li Jianguo.

Of course, if you imagine three high-horsepower tractors moving together, the speed would be understandable.

As the Li family earned more, so too did Li Junfeng, Li Junhai, and Chen Qianjin.

So even though the machine farming fee hasn't been fully collected yet, Li Jianguo has already distributed the money to them.

Li Long didn't participate; he said he would take care of the cooperative on behalf of the Li family first.

Hearing the noise outside, Xie Yundong came out and said, "Is everyone here? Come in quickly."

The space inside was small, but it was spacious and open to talk outside. But to be honest, it was a bit chilly outside now; Li Long felt like his ears were freezing—the outdoor temperature was at least zero degrees Celsius, or even lower.

Xie Yundong called out, and everyone stepped inside. Those who smoked took a couple of puffs and then stomped out their cigarettes outside.

Upon entering the room, Li Long felt a sudden darkness and instinctively reached for the light. However, he decided against it, thinking it wasn't his own home and that he shouldn't be so casual about it.

Sitting on the sofa, Li Long grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and started cracking them open.

Everyone else found a place to sit, and then Xie Yundong began to talk about the cooperative's situation this year.

To Li Long's surprise, the cooperative's 1,050 mu of land yielded more than 180 tons of cotton this year, exceeding his expectations.

After deducting all expenses, the total amount of dividends reached more than 190,000 yuan, with the Li brothers receiving more than 80,000 yuan.

Double the number from last year!
"Hey, this money is good..." Everyone else was also very happy, and they earned almost twice as much as last year.

Jia Weidong explained the income and expenses, which everyone understood. The reason for the high income was that the land gradually became more developed, and with meticulous management, cotton production increased significantly, but the overall cost not only did not increase but actually decreased.

In addition, lessons were learned from last year, cotton picking was brought forward, and management was more scientific and strict. More first-crop cotton was picked than last year, and the total amount of first-grade cotton sold was also higher than last year, so the money earned was naturally higher.

However, after reading out the accounts and having everyone sign them this year, the money was not distributed immediately.

According to Xie Yundong, today is the first day of celebration, and tomorrow he will personally deliver the money to each shareholder—since we've been drinking, we won't need to give them any money.

“Hey, I’ll add two more dishes first.” Li Long suddenly remembered the canned food he brought and said, “I set up my own cannery, but I still get canned food from the state commune. There are some kinds of canned food that I’ve never seen before, let’s try them out.”

He went out and got a few cans of food from the car. When Xie Yundong and the others looked at them, they realized they had never seen them before.

Have you ever seen canned monkey head mushrooms? Have you ever seen canned venison? These were all brought over by the state-run cooperative (not many people in northern Xinjiang had seen these in the 1990s).

The rare canned goods that Li Long brought certainly piqued everyone's curiosity, and everyone was trying to guess what they tasted like.

After all, monkey head mushrooms are one of the eight delicacies of the mountains, and most people have heard of them but never eaten them. Unlike silver ear fungus, which was already available at supply and marketing cooperatives at that time, monkey head mushrooms were something I had never seen before.

Although I've never seen canned venison, I have eaten venison. Every year, Li Long slaughters a few deer, and each family gets a share of the venison.

After looking at the food, Li Long handed the canned goods to Xie Yundong and asked him to prepare them in the kitchen. These cans contained cooked food; they could be opened, poured onto plates, and served immediately.

However, in the cold weather, people are used to eating hot food, so even cold dishes served before a main meal need to be heated up.

After settling the bill, let's start eating.

The cold dishes were served first, meant to accompany the men's drinks.

Li Long glanced at the dishes: fried peanuts, cold pork skin jelly, cold bean sprouts, and a plate of cold pork head meat.

He then asked:

"Did someone in the team slaughter a pig? You can only get aspic and pig's head meat after slaughtering a pig, right?"

Normally, the team slaughters pigs before the Lunar New Year. Slaughtering pigs now before the snow has even fallen makes them difficult to preserve.

After all, at this time, apart from the Li family, no one else in the four teams had bought a refrigerator, let alone a freezer.

“It was slaughtered by Da Tou’s family,” Xu Haijun said. “His family didn’t raise any pigs this year, and feeding them in winter would be a hassle, so they didn’t want to raise them anymore. The brothers and neighbors divided the meat among themselves. They know how to make cured meat and sausages, so the meat was easy to handle.”

The Da Tou family is from Sichuan Province and has a good relationship with Xie Yundong's family. It's estimated that the meat was delivered here, or that Xie Yundong went to help when the pig was slaughtered.

Pork head is a delicacy. Although the people in Team Four had become wealthier and their living conditions had improved, they weren't yet suffering from high cholesterol, so a bite of cold pork head with some dipping sauce was incredibly delicious!

Xie Yundong brought over two bottles of Baiyang Tequ liquor, opened them, and poured some for everyone. Fifty-gram glasses, seemingly ordinary now, would be terrifying in later generations.

"Come on, Xiaolong, didn't you say you'd drink us under the table with a drinking game? Let's play one first, shall we?" Xu Haijun said as he saw Li Long pick up his chopsticks.

"Sure," Li Long said with a smile.

"I'm not very good at paddling, let's go slowly."

Xu Haijun was delighted and said, "What's the rush? Everyone goes through this. How can you be good at finger-guessing games if you don't drink a lot?" "Alright," Li Long turned halfway to face Xu Haijun, extended his right hand, palm facing himself, and looked Xu Haijun in the eye. The two spoke almost simultaneously:

"A promotion..."

Then Li Long got a six-six-six, and Xu Haijun got a five-headed hand. Both were full hands, neither of them won nor lost. They didn't need to stop at all. While changing their hands, they shouted for the next one.

After three gulps, Xu Haijun reluctantly lowered his hand, picked up the wine glass in front of him and drank it all in one gulp. Then, he quickly picked up a piece of aspic with his chopsticks, stuffed it into his mouth, put down the chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and said:
"You're still holding on because you're a newbie? You're just lucky. Come on, let's keep going!"

So we continued.

Liang Dacheng smiled and said to Tao Daqiang, "Xiaolong is really lucky. He caught the navy with just three 666s."

"Brother Long isn't just lucky," Tao Daqiang said, shaking his head. "Look at him, he kept shouting '666,' and his hand changed three times. The second time, he barely managed to grab Haijun, who didn't even flinch. The third time, it was in Brother Long's hands. See? Brother Long is quick with his calculations. This time, it'll probably be... Hey, see?"

The second time, Li Long didn't just shout out a number to catch Xu Haijun; instead, he started making wildly imaginative changes.

Xu Haijun thought it was just a small mistake, that he had seen through Li Long's thoughts, but he was wrong again this time.

After three rounds of drinking games, Xu Haijun drank three cups and hurriedly waved his hand: "I can't drink like this anymore. If I keep drinking like this, I'll pass out before the main dishes are served—best of three rounds, come on!"

Seeing his flushed face, Li Long waved his hand and said, "Have some hot tea first... The stove at Old Xie's house is hot, you'll feel better after you sweat it out. Let's stop for a bit."

Although they said they would stop, no one really wanted to stop. Except for Tao Daqiang, everyone else, including Xie Yundong, was eager to test Li Long's rock-paper-scissors skills—although he had beaten Xu Haijun three times, no one else believed it was true.

So, the two bottles of Baiyang Special Qu were finished before the main course even arrived.

Of course, the braised pig's head and aspic that served as appetizers before the main course were also gone, and Xu Haijun was picking up peanuts one by one.

He didn't believe in superstitions, and later played a few more rounds of fistfights with Li Long, and finally drank another cup before completely giving up.

"This is called newbie protection, you know?" Li Long only drank one cup from beginning to end, and that was when he was playing rock-paper-scissors with Tao Daqiang. Tao Daqiang originally didn't plan to touch Li Long, but Xie Yundong and the others insisted, saying that even if Li Long had already cleared the level, they were the only ones missing.

Tao Daqiang is quite simple-minded; his rock-paper-scissors skills are average, and he does things very casually.

That's why he won a cup of wine from Li Long, which was quite surprising.

The temperature inside the room rose higher and higher; the brick firewalls were so hot they were untouchable. Everyone took off their coats, sweat pouring down their faces, so despite having drunk quite a bit, they were still relatively sober.

The room reeked of alcohol, but the smell didn't come entirely from the glasses; it was also from everyone's sweat. In such a hot room, the more you sweat, the faster the alcohol evaporates, and although we drank quite a bit, it was very enjoyable.

When Deng Guilan brought out the dishes, Xie Yundong took out two more cups of Baiyang Tequ liquor, unscrewed the caps and filled everyone's cups, then said, "Alright, everyone, stop for a moment. Today is our cooperative's year-end summary, and everyone has worked hard all year. As the manager, I propose that we all have a drink together to mark the end of this year."

Everyone raised their glasses and clinked them together sincerely.

If last year was the initial stage and adjustment period for the cooperative, then this year can be considered a period of steady development.

This year, everyone is much more skilled at their work than last year, and they cooperate very well, with a significant increase in initiative.

Speaking of this year's increased cotton production, besides the fact that the soil was more ripe, a major reason is the good management practices.

"To be honest, everyone has been working really hard this year," Xie Yundong said with a sigh, putting down his cup. "Last year I was exhausted. Firstly, I wasn't familiar with the people, and secondly, I often had to find people to help me with the work. This year, I'm much more relaxed. I don't have to worry about what work needs to be done at what time; everyone just goes by themselves. Hey, it's really great!"

Everyone else laughed too.

Liang Dacheng spoke frankly: "That's for sure. Last year, each family received more than ten thousand yuan, that's real. To be honest, where would you get that much money growing other things? Even if Old Wang opened up so much land to grow wheat, he would only make a few thousand yuan a year after all his hard work!"

That's the truth. Without the incentive of personal gain, people certainly wouldn't be as proactive and enthusiastic about their work as they are this year.

And now everyone can see that this effort has really paid off, with so much more money earned than last year, so it's all worth the extra hard work!
“I heard that although those two cooperatives haven’t distributed dividends yet, after deducting expenses, each one can earn a few thousand yuan—no more than three thousand,” Xu Haijun said, picking up a piece of chicken and eating it. “Those cooperatives are all complaining, especially after they found out that we received more than ten thousand yuan last year…”

"How can they be the same?" Tao Daqiang, who was always honest, was a little puzzled. "We have more than a thousand acres of land, how much land do they have?"

"They're thinking their land is fertile, while ours is saline-alkali land," Liang Dacheng said between bites. "Would they even think that? They're probably just wondering why we earn more than them!"

“Pink eye, it’s perfectly normal,” Jia Weidong said casually. “They also have saline-alkali land, but they don’t cultivate it as carefully as we do. What are they doing while we’re protecting the fields from everyone? They want to make money but don’t want to work hard.”

"Not only are they unwilling to put in the hard work, but they also won't listen to advice," Xu Haijun said with a sneer. Then he turned to Xie Yundong and asked, "Old Xie, do both sides come to you for help whenever they encounter a problem?"

"That's true, they asked me quite a few questions this year."

"That's how it turned out. After asking, they didn't do exactly what you said, adding their own ideas. Originally, they could have achieved 80%, but in the end, they didn't even complete 60%. Who can they blame?"

Li Long smiled, picked up his chopsticks and ate his food without saying a word. There was no need to offend anyone at this point. Anyway, he had the money and his proof was valid, so that was enough.

"Actually, they've already settled all the accounts, but haven't divided the money yet. It's just that a few families are dissatisfied and are checking the accounts," Xu Haijun added. "Some people are also asking how much we'll get... I didn't say, but have others also been asking you about it?"

"I asked around," Tao Daqiang said honestly. "I told you I didn't know, I really didn't know."

Liang Dacheng and Jia Weidong both nodded.

"In the next couple of days, once the figures for how much money we'll get are released, those other companies will probably start arguing again."

"So we're not going to tell?" Tao Daqiang asked. "We can't keep it a secret forever, can we?"

"What's wrong with saying that? We earn what we earn." Liang Dacheng didn't care about such things. "If we're capable, we'll earn more. If they earn less, it's because they're not capable."

“Yes, that’s exactly right.” Xu Haijun put down his chopsticks, chewing on some meat as he spoke. “We didn’t steal or rob anything, so why can’t we speak up?”

Li Long interjected, "The money's been distributed, so hold onto it carefully. I reckon someone'll be coming over to organize another gambling session soon. Since you got a lot of money, people will definitely come after you. Keep a close eye on your wallets; don't work hard all year only to have it all go to someone else in minutes at the card table."

"Don't worry, we know what we're doing." Xu Haijun said confidently. "We can play cards with our own family, even if it's just five cents or a dollar. But we can forget about other people."

Li Long didn't say anything more; some things need to be experienced firsthand.

Then he started talking about the drip irrigation experimental field.

"The experimental field I was in charge of at the agricultural extension school yielded 380 kilograms of cotton per mu (unit of land area)," Li Long announced, then remained silent.

Sure enough, the moment those words were spoken, the scene erupted!

"What? Three hundred and eighty? Xiaolong, you're not mistaken, are you?" Liang Dacheng was the first to express his doubt.

"How could that be?" Xu Haijun immediately shook his head in disbelief. "The land was right there. We saw that it had a lot of peaches, but it shouldn't have yielded that many, right?"

Tao Daqiang never suspected Li Long, but he didn't say anything either, waiting for Li Long to explain.

Xie Yundong and Jia Weidong just looked at Li Long, waiting for him to say something next.

“It’s exactly 380.” Li Long said with a smile, “It’s the real deal. You saw it back then, and most of the cotton bolls opened directly. After two rounds of opening, we didn’t pick the third round of flowers or bring back any bolls.”

"That's amazing!" Xie Yundong exclaimed. "If only we could harvest this much land..."

“Then we’ll be rich!” Xu Haijun chimed in.

"However, the cost is also high, now it's over a thousand yuan per mu." Li Long's next sentence shocked everyone again.

"Such high costs? Wouldn't that mean losing money?" Tao Daqiang asked, puzzled.

Li Long explained, "That's an experimental field. It's okay to lose money; the main thing is to get data. The high cost is mainly the drip irrigation tape. Once that's reduced, we'll be able to make a profit later."

“Then let’s wait until the price drops, and then we’ll plant this too.” Xie Yundong had complete faith in Li Long’s words.

The conversation became lighter.

As the host, Xie Yundong quickly began to fulfill his duties as the wine commander, clearing the way for others.

Li Long now has a basic understanding of his rock-paper-scissors skills. Although he is not as good as his older brother, he is still considered one of the best among these people.

So, let's just go with the game. After everyone finished, Li Long calculated that he had drunk less than six ounces of liquor.

It was hot in the room, and I felt like most of the alcohol had been expelled. I felt slightly dizzy, which was equivalent to drinking four or five bottles of beer.

It's nothing.

However, the others were different. Even though it was hot in the room and they were relieving themselves quickly, they were all flushed and out of breath, their eyes glazed over. They could still sit steadily, but their speech was no longer as fluent. Some things that they used to keep to themselves, they now dared to say.

Li Long found it amusing. The most common thing people said was that they envied him, mainly because of his luck, ability, and current circumstances.

Of course, there was also gratitude. Tao Daqiang was one thing, but Liang Dacheng and Jia Weidong, after drinking too much, grabbed his arm, tears and snot streaming down their faces, sincerely thanking him.

Otherwise, how could I drive a car?
Xie Yundong was the most reliable, but he had too many people. Li Long, seeing that it was about time, half-forced them to put on their clothes and hats. He could still drive, so he took them home one by one before returning to his elder brother's house.

The eldest brother was already asleep in bed, clearly drunk. His sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, and Li Junfeng's wife, Dong Xiaojuan, were cleaning up the mess. Li Long greeted them and went next door to check on his mother.

Old lady Du Chunfang was peeling cotton bolls while listening to the radio.

Seeing Li Long come in, the old woman grinned and said:
"Your older brother said you had dinner at your cooperative, and you didn't drink too much?"

"No, I only drank less than a bottle." Li Long sat opposite his mother, taking a handful of cotton bolls from his bag and peeling them as he spoke. "I'll be back as soon as I've taken the person home. Mother, have you eaten?"

"I've eaten, I've eaten," Mom said. "I didn't want to eat with them, so I ate in the kitchen with your sister-in-law and Xiaojuan. Oh, by the way, your sister-in-law also cut me a plate of braised meat and a plate of peanuts. Do you want some?"

"I'm not eating, you can eat slowly." Li Long said with a smile, "Mom, do you want to stay in my yard for a while? My yard has been renovated, and now there is heating, so we don't need to use the stove at night. It's very warm."

“No.” Old lady Du Chunfang shook her head like a rattle drum. “I’m fine here. Junfeng’s mother can chat with me every day. If I go to your place, I’ll have nothing to do all day and no one to talk to.”

Li Long thought about it and agreed, so he didn't say anything more and changed the subject: "They must have received quite a lot this year, right?"

"Hey, that's a lot. Junfeng has the most, 12,000, Qianjin has 10,000, Junhai and Junxian both have 8,000—the least is 5,000. They're so happy this year!"

That's for sure. With the average wage around 100, to earn 5,000 a year just from farming, working six months and resting six, how wonderful would that be?
Even the brothers who go south to work can't earn this much, right? Or rather, they'd be lucky to earn half of this—after all, this is pure profit, not including food, drink, or lodging!
"I even asked your older brother if we'd paid out too much, but he said if we're making a lot of money, we can't let those who work alongside us lose out. I think we'll probably get a lot more people next year!"

"Come on, come on." Li Long said as he tossed the peeled cotton petals into a bag. "We have a lot of land, so the more people we have, the more people we can work on."

During dinner today, Xu Haijun and the others also talked about other topics, such as opening up more wasteland next spring and clearing up all the remaining wasteland around the cooperative's thousand or so acres of land.

Liang Dacheng, however, had a more imaginative idea: there was no need to limit themselves to just that one area. There was still a lot of wasteland in the fourth team, and since the cooperative already had mature land reclamation technology, they could just find a larger area and develop it.

Ultimately, it couldn't be finalized, mainly because Li Long pointed out that there weren't enough people. The current staff was already doing a good job managing this area, and if they were to move to another location, the people in charge would be running around to several different places every day, which would be very troublesome.

So we put this matter aside for now.

Of course, it's not that we won't discuss it; we'll talk about it next spring, or when we have time later.

If more people can come from my hometown, that would be a good thing. At least then we won't have to worry about finding people to do the work.

There's another reason why we're distributing so much money to our relatives back home this year: they really put in a lot of effort when the Li family was farming. Apart from the land in the cooperative, the work on the rest of the Li family's land was basically done by their relatives.

Du Chunfang, Li Long's mother, didn't care what he was thinking. She was quite talkative and told Li Long a lot of things she had heard from chatting with Li Junfeng's mother.

Li Long listened with a smile, occasionally interjecting with a comment.

It feels so warm and wonderful.

P.S.: Thank you all for the donations. I'm feeling a bit unwell today, probably a flare-up of some inflammation in my wrist. I'm using my left hand to hold the mouse now. I'll get a good rest tonight and hopefully feel better tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)